GVK’s client was a supermarket that leased space in a strip mall. Plaintiff, a patron who had just left the supermarket, was injured when she tripped and fell in a hole in the parking lot. Plaintiff sued the supermarket, the property owner and the parking lot maintenance company.

The property owner asserted cross-claims for contractual indemnification. Arguing Espinal, the case by plaintiff was fairly easily dismissed. The cross-claims were more complicated but by juxtaposing the carefully elicited deposition testimony with the language of the agreement between the property owner and supermarket, we successfully demonstrated to the Court that the supermarket did not owe a duty to the property owner despite the plaintiff having just come from its store.